4.
Taxes rise on stock returns for the wealthy

The board of the New York Stock Exchange shows the Exchange's final number of the year after the final closing bell of 2012 in New York, Dec. 31, 2012. Under the new fiscal deal, the tax rate on dividends and capital gains will rise from 15 percent to 20 percent for the wealthiest Americans.

The tax rate on dividends and capital gains above $400,000 ($450,000 for families) would rise from 15 percent to 20 percent. This would hit the wealthiest Americans, who tend to earn more from their capital investments than from wages and salaries – and raise only a few billion dollars in tax revenue in 2013. When analyzing a similar provision for a broader set of Americans – those with dividends and capital gains above $200,000 ($250,000) – the Tax Policy Center estimated it would bring in only $8 billion.

That's not all: Courtesy of the 2010 health-care law, high-income taxpayers will be charged a new 3.8 percent tax on their investment income.